LaserSoft Imaging

I am very interested in getting an Epson Perfection 2450. Now I am wondering if it has built-in scratch & dust removal (like ICE on Nikon film-scanners) for slides and negatives.

I have this feature in a Nikon Coolscan IV I use in the office and it's really amazing.
Now SF6 also has something like that. How does it compare to the built-in hardware solutions like ICE?

The Epson Perfection 2450 is a great scanner but doesn't have any built-in Digital ICE.

ICE utilizes infrared data coming from the scanner (which is not supplied by the Perfection 2450). This enables ICE to build a map of the defects which ought to be corrected. Indeed, the intensity in the infrared channel image gives some idea of the location of the defects.

SRD is a pure software solution. Therefore, the user has to "work" a bit more because the map of the defects needs to be done ! But the user has a full control on the parameters and SRD can handle black & white negatives (not possible with ICE) and Kodachrome films (some details get removed with ICE). Once you are used to the adjustments of the sliders, you can achieve pretty good results.

But the best thing is that you download and try a demo of the software

Regards.

Thomas

Microtek are about to launch the Scanmaker 6800 with digital ICE, the first flatbed scanner with ICE, also Epson made a large investment in ASF (the company behind ICE technology) a short while back, so we'll have to wait and see if and when they build it into their scanners.

But don't get mixed up: this is Digital ICE for Photo Prints. As far as I know it does not work for transparencies - where (IMHO) it would be needed more.
But still a nice invention.